


The Irish Navy

by Anonymous



Category: The Strange Case of Starship Iris (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:15:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21810691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Bad luck, or very good luck, finds Sana in a bar with Arkady just after she deserts.Or a take on how Arkady joined the Rumour.
Relationships: Arkady Patel/Sana Tripathi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6
Collections: Anonymous Fics, Yuletide 2019





	The Irish Navy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reconditarmonia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reconditarmonia/gifts).



Sana walked in to the bar feeling defeated. There was no way one person was making the delivery, her previous security officer had just fucked off with half the take and she wasn’t putting a weapon in her pilot’s hand. He couldn’t hit the broadside of the Rumour from two paces. She was going to have to recruit in backwaters with no advance on hand.

This hadn’t been a well paid job, barely covering the fuel and provisions they had used without additional expenses. Malec had been right about that, too high a risk for very little reward but doing it was the right thing. The Regime was “rationing” access to medications outside of the central worlds and contraceptives and abortifacients were in shortest supply. Sana would have had issue with forcing women to carry children they didn’t want at the best of times. The middle of a stupid, unnecessary, politically expident war wasn’t a good time for loads of babies to be born on out of the way colonies in said war’s path. They- She - she was Captain, the buck stopped at her - hadn’t done a good enough job hiding what their cargo was. Desperate people, traffickers and IGR agents were all possible hazards between her and the clinic.

The bar was what you would expect on a colony on the edge of human space with no official IGR presence. A seedy dump in need of repair heaving with people like Sana, smugglers, pirates, deserters. Their job board, accessed only from the secure local network, was the perfect place to pick up a second gun for the job who would take the slim pay Sana could offer. While she idled away the night in hopes of applicants in the morning she could have a conversation with someone other than her pilot.

Advert placed and bad beer in hand Sana people watched. She vaguely recognised five or six people in the bar but none well enough to strike up idle conversation with and she wasn’t up for serious discussion, political or work related.

She wanted to kick herself. Yes, this wasn’t the worst place to pick up temporary security but she could have avoided this. She knew Malec wasn’t interested in turning down profit for what they would have to do to gain it. Who they would need to harm. She needed something stronger than this. Sana threw back the weak swill the bar called their best beer and ordered a shot. It was rotgut, brewed out back with whatever. So harsh you couldn’t taste anything but the alcohol. Perfect. Sana settled in to get properly drunk and maudlin.

Down the bar a pretty young woman with deep brown skin and hair and face that looked made for smiling was glancing her way repeatedly. Sana wondered idly if she was as strong as the muscle tone on her arms suggested or as serious as she was acting. If she was that serious in bed. It had been far too long since she had been laid or in the presence of attractive women if that was where her thoughts went that fast.

Another shot.

The music changed to from generic bad electro pop to electro pop covers of Irish traditional music. Sana winced so obviously the harried bartender noticed and refilled her glass. “It’s not so bad after the fourth shot.” He said. She tried to lose herself in the news feeds and compulsively checking her ad on the local network for responses.

“Arkady.” The cute woman from down the bar sat down next to her, a shit eating grin on her face and her brown eyes dancing. “I see you are a woman of taste and standards that do not lower to the DJ’s remix of an electro pop version of The Black Velvet Band.” She waved for a shot.

“There’s a DJ?” Sana blurted out, having assumed it was just a playlist.

“The worst this side of Lovelace.” Arkady didn’t seem worried about insulting the bartender. “What brought you to this shithole?” The bartender flipped her the bird which made Arkady laugh. “If you could leave you wouldn’t be here.” She snarked back.

“Work.” Sana didn’t want to spread the details of their current job any further than they already had been. “You?”

“Well, it’s good luck for me,” Arkady smiled, “don’t get women as pretty as you on this planet often.” Then she rolled her eyes at herself and Sana couldn’t help but laugh. “Honestly, I’m a criminal who can’t go back to IGR controlled space like everyone else in this bar.” Arkady threw out.

“Well, if we’re sharing.” She was drunk if she was sharing but Arkady was right. No one in this bar was anything but a criminal, “I’m a smuggler.”

“Deserter,” Arkady said, “among other things.” She slammed a shot. “Whatever I am. It’s not as bad as the Regime.”

The sudden dark cloud that passed over her made Sana want to promise her that no one would ever ask her to break or make her break whatever moral boundary the Regime had. Not a promise she could make, nor one she should want to make to someone she had just met. “Is anyone?” She asked instead.

“That’s optimistic.” The black cloud had passed and Arkady’s face was alight with interest. The music in the bar screeched in to discordant battling synth fiddles. They both winced and Arkady looked conflicted. Suddenly she leant across to press a warm kiss that made sparks flicker through Sana’s entire body. She pressed into it, flicking her tongue against Arkady’s plump chapped lips. Definitely too long.

Arkady pulled back when Sana reached out to tangle her hands in her hair. “You want to take this elsewhere?” She was shouting into Sana’s ear to be heard, “I can promise you the music is only going to get worse and louder.”

They paid their tabs and wandered out into the cold, crisp night, hands entwined. Arkady was a lefty Sana noticed, but it was her right hand she held Sana’s in. She had thought the cold air would drum in what a bad idea this was but Arkady’s warm presence against her was still tingling through her body. They were consenting adults and it had been far too long since she was around an attractive, interested woman.

The bar was in the docks, if Sana looked in the right direction she’d be able to see the ship her ex-security officer had signed on with. Her thoughts took a recriminating turn. Maybe it had been a bad idea to drink tonight.

“Is your ride docked or are you stuck here until a ship going your way comes in?” Arkady’s question pulled her from her thoughts.

“The Rumour is docked there.” Sana turned and pointed to a small dock where a ship that would be kindly called old was docked. On board Alfie would be getting them refueled and supplied, and taking advantage of her absence to entertain. He would be expecting her to come back job complete and their next one secured. “She’s not much but she’s mine and she’s freedom.”

Arkady’s face was open and she didn’t look like she was misjudging the Rumour based on appearances too much. “Freedom?”

“I don’t owe anyone for her and she’s not hot.” Sana expounded. “Don’t have to take any job, no matter what to make payments. I can pick and choose. Provided we cover fuel, food and medicine we’re good.”

“Sounds like a good life.” Arkady said as they continued to wander.

Their meanders seemed to be completely random but it was a pleasure not to be in the bar listening to the DJ’s idea of music. Arkady’s facial scars were apparent in the yellow bath of street light and light pollution in a way they hadn’t been in the bar. It hadn’t just been chapped lips she had been feeling when they kissed but they didn’t detract from her beauty. Thinking that Sana pressed a kiss to Arkady keeping it gentle and not trying to hold her to her when Arkady pulled away before they started properly French kissing.

“What do you do?” Sana asked. “Other than desert.” She made sure her tone was light and non-judgemental on the second sentence.

“A bit of this, a bit of that.” Arkady evaded. “Nothing the regime would like. Security sometimes.” Sana nodded. Arkady moved like a soldier even after three shots of that rotgut Sana had seen her drink and she’d kept her weapon clear and accessible even while they were kissing. “So how did an inner planet girl like you come to be a smuggler?” The confident Arkady was back, shit eating grin in place.

“I’m a criminal.” Sana replied, then something compelled her to be more honest. “Couldn’t let the Regime keep doing what they were doing. There wasn’t anyway to stand up that wasn’t criminal.”

Arkady wrapped her arm around Sana’s waist squeezing her bum on the way past. “You should be carrying a gun, Captain.”

“I do when it’s necessary.” Their legs were different lengths and walking together like this made them Arkady’s hair brush against Sana’s face, filling her nose with a clean, almost masculine scent. “Don’t need one to go to a docks bar and don’t like to take one if I’m going to be drinking. It’s easier to resolve a situation peacefully without weapons being pulled.” She inhaled deeply getting a lungful of cedar over vanilla and the ambient smell of fuel and grime from the docks. “Easier to escape the Regime’s notice if you’re not armed too.”

Arkady’s arm tightened around her, “The only way you’ll find the Regime’s toadies out here is if they come to press gang more bodies for their farce of a war.” Arkady’s tone was bitter.

They walked in companionable silence, the cold air making their breath mist in front of them and Sana aware that she hadn’t dressed for climate. Their wandering was pulling them away from the docks and areas of Miriam Sana was familiar with. “What do you smuggle?” Arkady asked.

“Whatever there’s demand for.” Was Sana’s immediate response the question doing more to sober her than the cold air had. The reason she had been at the bar drove her to clarify. “Not weapons. Food, meds or censored documents, normally.” This conversation was beginning to feel like the strangest recruitment interview she’d ever had.

Arkady’s hand in hers tightened and then Sana was against the wall being kissed hard. “Fuck you’re noble.” Arkady broke away breathing hard when Sana tried to wander her hands up inside Arkady’s shirt.

Arkady pulled her away from the wall and powered them along with direction to a decrepit apartment building with a surprisingly sturdy door. Inside was the same, peeling paint, disintegrating carpet and sturdy, well maintained doors with heavy locks. The apartment Arkady opened was furnished with a terminal and a mattress on the floor. She carefully closed and locked the door then pushed Sana into it. This kiss was just as burning as their previous two but Arkady didn’t object when Sana tangled her hands in her soft hair or slid her hands up under Arkady’s shirt to feel hot skin. Instead she peeled the shirt off and placed the gun, IGR issue, Sana had thought she was carrying next to the mattress.

The shirt revealed a latticework of scarring, old and barely healed crossing over each other, and a well worn black sports bra. Sana’s own bra was slightly less practical but just as well worn and the scarring more emotional than physical. Arkady seemed not to be self-conscious of her scarring stripping out of the rest of her clothes with economical movements. Sana pressed against her, kissing her way down Arkady’s chest to the full heavy breasts her bra had concealed. Arkady was very responsive to her gentle suckling but any force of pain stopped the eager moans and unconscious shifting of her hips.

She lingered at Arkady’s sensitive breasts, fingers tracing the lacework of her scars over Arkady’s tolerance for she found herself suddenly flipped and pressed to the mattress, Arkady’s head between her legs. Arkady may have responded better to a gentle touch but she was not a gentle lover. She nipped and sucked as much as she licked to Sana’s relief. Receiving oral sex was rarely enough of the right simulation but this had her trying to buck up in to Arkady against her firm grip embarrassingly fast. Then tumbling over the edge into over simulation.

Arkady released her and Sana forced her shaking body down to return the favour. Arkady responded best to gentle touch and barely any contact with her clit. Working her tongue rhythmically inside Arkady was what worked made her grasp at the tangled sheets beneath her and moan unintelligibly. Her vaginal muscles were as strong as the rest of her and Sana’s tongue twinged as Arkday’s orgasm overtook her and she clamped down hard.

She collapsed on the mattress next to Arkady, the drink and relaxation catching up with her. If she didn’t move soon she was going to fall asleep she thought. The walk back to the bar and her capsule above was a blur and she couldn’t have retraced her footsteps certain she relied more on the electro pop takes on Irish traditional music still blaring to guide her way than anything else.

She woke up to a single, well- referenced application from Arkady Patel, placed to the secure board an hour after Sana got back to the bar. She’d been right that had been an interview but not for her to work for Arkady. As she arranged to meet Sana wondered which Arkady was the real Arkady. Or more aptly, which Arkady she was hiring, the cocksure hotshot, the intense IGR rebel, or the surprisingly sensitive and awkward, serious young woman.


End file.
